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US TV manufacturer Vizio’s underhanded Big Data dealing may have just cost it $2.2 million but I think it is something we can unfortunately expect to see a lot more of.

The FTC this week announced that viewing data of individual households was monitored through a built-in spy device which used image recognition technology. Once every second, software in the Vizio TVs would read pixel data from a segment of the screen. This was sent home and compared against a database of film, television and advertising content to determine what was being watched.

The FTC has revealed that Vizio went further than this – matching data on what was being watched with IP addresses, and selling it, along with third party demographic data, to businesses and organizations with a need for audience measurement.

This week we heard that Vizio paid $2.2 million to settle the FTC complaint, agreed to stop collecting viewing data in this way, and to delete the data it had already collected from its servers. That might seem like a comparatively low figure, but this may be, as Vizio point out in their statement, because personally identifiable information wasn’t transmitted.

This isn’t the first time our smart home entertainment systems have been accused of spying on us. In 2013 LG admitted that voice data was still being captured and transmitted even if users had denied consent for this to happen. And in 2015 there was concern after it was found that Samsung TVs were also recording and sending home “living room chatter”.

Interestingly, and acknowledging that this is likely to be a problem which only becomes more frequent in the future, the FTC put out some suggestions for manufacturers of smart home equipment, to help them steer clear of causing this sort of trouble.

They were:

Explain your data collection processes up front
Get consumer’s consent before you collect and share highly specific information about their preferences
Make it easy for customers to exercise options
Established consumer protection principles apply to new technology.
It is the first and second of these principles where Vizio most spectacularly fell short. Their (clearly ineffective) means of gaining “consent” was through an option presented to the user as “Smart Interactivity”. Customers were informed that leaving this option switch on (its default setting) meant their personal data would be monitored for the vague and undefined purpose of “enables program offers and suggestions.”

Anyhow, just based upon the text of the title I am not surprised. It is driven by basic greed and lack of respect for the customers. And the CEO needs to support his/her million dollar lifestyle somehow. Won't anyone think of the CEOs?

Your 'smart TV' could be spying on you.
Vizio, one of the world's biggest smart TV makers, is paying $2.2million to settle charges that it tracked the viewing habits of 11 million devices without consent.
Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling it to advertisers and media companies.
The company is being forced to delete all data that it has collected since February 2014.
But concerns have been raised that the Vizio could have spied on millions more viewers across the globe.
Vizio, one of the world's biggest smart TV makers, is paying $2.2million to settle charges that it tracked the viewing habits of 11 million devices without consent. Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling it to advertisers and media companies
Vizio, one of the world's biggest smart TV makers, is paying $2.2million to settle charges that it tracked the viewing habits of 11 million devices without consent. Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling it to advertisers and media companies

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR DATA
If you own a Vizio smart TV, default settings mean that your viewing habits and IP address will be shared with third parties.
But you can turn it off if you don't want to share that information using these steps:
-Press 'menu' on your remote
-Select settings
-Highlight 'smart interactivity'
-Press the right arrow to turn it off
Internet-connected TVs sold by California-based Vizio contained Automated Content Recognition software (ACR), a complaint filed on Monday by the US Federal Trade Commission claims.
Without the consent of TV users the ACR software tracked second-by-second viewing information of what was playing on the screen.
It not only spied on satellite TV viewing data but also noted viewers' DVD and Netflix habits.
The software took personal information and merged it with viewing data to sell to advertisers and media companies.
Personal data taken includes users' IP address, meaning that data collected could be targeted to those users through their different mobile devices.
IP addresses cannot be directly used to identify a user, but they are increasingly used to build up a person's profile.

they probably think it is ok too, to build one high def camera to monitor viewers eye ball movement and track eye activities, this could probably happening inside major laptops, now, yes, right now at this moment, please cover your webcam with sticker, thank you.

they probably think it is ok too, to build one high def camera to monitor viewers eye ball movement and track eye activities, this could probably happening inside major laptops, now, yes, right now at this moment, please cover your webcam with sticker, thank you.

That is not enough. Also disconnect your speaker and microphone.

Yes, really, I said your speaker also. Because many chipsets are flexible enough to switch the speaker into an input device and it becomes a microphone.

I don't get why Vizio has to do this. Ever since Comcast encrypted their signals you have to select your channels through their HD DTA for which there is no problem to send Comcast all your viewing data. And yes, I do have a Vizio TV, although it's not a smart TV, thus not connected to the internet. I keep my Samsung smart TV disconnected from the internet except occasionally to update its software, thus hopefully it's not sending any data through its infamous microphone-equipped smart remote.

I don't see how you can get by without a TV. What I would say is a minimal configuration, 50 in 4K, is about 400 bucks for a low end model at Walmart or Target. How much would one have to pay for what would be marketed as a monitor of at least this size and resolution?

The thing that is most criminal is when it opts you in despite you having tried to opt out, and then also opts in people who didn't even buy one of the devices. For example, every Android handset is passive listening device. This can be verified empirically by having a conversation and watching how ads change in aps and web pages where the only computerized device was an Android phone. I assume that if Android phones are doing this that any Google OS enabled device is doing this. Given that Facebook is able to build a decent detection system for non-members who were merely tagged in a photo, I would assume that Google can track people even if they do not opt in to Google's shit. So, now, you do not even need to volunteer information to social media platforms or to Google's searches for tracking... you are being tracked at all times by every smart phone, smart TV, smart toaster, smart fridge, smart car infotainment system, etc...

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